How to maintain consistency in your visual communication?
Consistency creates visibility and recognition. When you have defined your visual identity, it is essential to apply it consistently to all the touch point between your Brand and your various stakeholders.
Some hints can help you succeed in this task —For better performance, consider them as a whole method.
Succinctly, here are described the seven steps process for maintaining better consistency for your Brand:
Step 1: Alignment
Coherence in your visual identity is easier to manage when you have an internal and external alignment. Internally, your visual identity needs to be founded on your Brand values and your behaviours.
Externally, the alignment with your core idea, your positioning and the experience of your stakeholders must be exposed.
Step 2: Set guidelines
When a strong brand is aligned, a guiding set of rules is easier to define. The rules should not necessarily be unvarying: in our current world, they can be flexible or, even better, dynamic. However, the most significant concern is that the rules should be well determined and applied rigorously. You need to develop and share a central document that gathers all rules to use. This handbook is called a Brand guide.
Step 3: Name a Brand Guardian
A Brand guide is not sufficient. You need someone in your organisation that checks the consistency of every branded touch points before to diffuse them. This person is called a Brand Guardian. Often, a member of the Communication Department plays this crucial role.
Step 4: Training
Ideally, the Brand Guardian must be helped in his task by the staff of your organisation. To arrive at this level of engagement, you need to communicate the fundamental of your Brand to every colleague. Then you need to explain your Brand rules and train them on how to use it. Therefore, you can use them all as Brand Ambassadors.
Step 5: Communicate
Communication is central to the process. You need to communicate the most significant pillars of your Brand to your main external stakeholders. This will help your partners to understand better the way you would like to be seen by them. Besides, why not, they can also become your Brand Ambassadors?
Step 6: Repeat
Don’t be afraid to replicate your main messages, images and visuals. Studies show that a person needs to be faced with a Brand at least six times before being able to memorise it. Internally, this could appear unpleasant but you can avoid the motionless feeling by developing flexibility in your visual expression.
Step 7: Refresh
Nowadays, the world is moving faster than ever. New technologies bring new ways to think and express your Brand. You need to update your visual identity on a regular basis. If you update the general look and feel of your brand at least each year, your Brand will not appear old fashioned and you will never be obliged to make radical modifications. We do not speak about your logo and the main pillars of your communication but the general visual environment of your brand.
Think about it: the institutional brand of the Grand Father does not connect anymore with anyone, except for the supporters of a bygone era.
Page in extremis turns brands into valuable assets and ensures the alignment with their strategic objectives.
The communication agency proposes four integrated communication services:
1) The definition of a “brand strategy” aligned with the development strategy of your organisation.
2) The creation or refreshment of your visual identity aligned with a new brand strategy and supported by easy to use guidelines developed in a clear and concise Brand guide.
3) The improvement of your “Communication Programme” by incorporating integrated communication campaigns, unforgettable events, excellent publications and innovative digital solutions.
4) The creative development and production of innovative printed and digital communication projects.
Interested in partnering with Page in extremis?
Based in Brussels, the communication agency makes associations brands conversational, helps organisations manage their communities, engage with their stakeholders and convey their messages.
For more information:
http://www.inextremis.be
http://www.inextremisbranding.be
http://www.inextremisdigital.be
